BBC
News Country Profile: Kyrgyzstan
The BBC profile of Kyrgyzstan offers information on the
country's political landscape and media resources and
a timeline of key events shaping the country.

Lonely
Planet World Guide: Kyrgyzstan
The travel guide series says that Kyrgyzstan "is perhaps
the most accessible and welcoming of the Central Asian
republics." The Web site contains a slideshow, demographic
facts about the country and lists of places to see. The
site also contains important cultural information on the
country.

The
Kyrgyzstan Freenet
The Kyrgyzstan Freenet is an Internet portal operating
out of Kyrgyzstan. It claims to be the first of its kind
in the nation. In addition to offering Yellow Pages-type
information on Kyrgyzstan and country-specific links grouped
under headings like "Business, Market Reform and Corruption,"
the site also contains Central Asian news bulletins and
links to NGOs operating in Kyrgyzstan and Central Asia.

Eurasianet:
The Kyrgyzstan Resource Page
Eurasianet is the online arm of the Central Eurasia Project
of the Open Society Institute. The site provides information
and analysis about political, economic, environmental
and social developments in Central Asia, the Caucasus,
Russia, the Middle East and Southwest Asia. Eurasianet's
resources include daily Kyrgyzstan coverage from international
news agencies, human rights information, and international
and U.S. policy information regarding Kyrgyzstan.

"Kyrgyzstan
faces post Akayev future"
When candidates loyal to President Askar Akayev won an
overwhelming majority in the country's parliament in March
2005, Western governments and the opposition in Kyrgyzstan
said the elections had been fixed. Protesters took to
the streets, occupied government buildings and forced
Akeyev to resign. Information about Kyrgyzstan under interim
President Kurmanbek Bakiev, the opposition leader who
stepped in to head the country until elections in June,
can be found on the BBC News Web site.

"Incursions
in Central Asia"
This December 2003 article from Time Asia Magazine
provides a lighthearted snapshot of where to find "a little
R. and R." in Kyrgyzstan's capital, Bishkek. It mentions
TsUM, the city's only department store, and nightclubs
with such names as Zeppelin, Fatboys and SoHo.

Images
by Jonathan Barth
Kyrgyzstan.htm Freelance photographer Jonathan Barth spent
two years in Osh, Kyrgyzstan, for the Peace Corps, teaching
English at a journalism training center. His photo portfolio
on Kyrgyzstan contains images of traditional Kyrgyz society
and culture, including photos of a game of Central Asian
polo in which a goat or calf carcass is used in place
of a ball. Accompanying captions provide insight into
Kyrgyz dress, customs and daily life. Pictures from a
refugee village inside Kyrgyzstan are also included.

UNESCO
Culture Sector: Kyrgyzstan
UNESCO is sponsoring an ecotourism project in Kyrgyzstan
in conjunction with the Novinomad Ecotourism Development
Company. According to UNESCO, tourism in Kyrgyzstan is
growing at an annual rate of 15 to 20 percent, with visitors
attracted to the nation's Tien Shan mountain range and
Lake Issyk-Kul, the second-largest high-altitude lake
in the world. Read more about UNESCO's ecotourist activities,
including yurt building, visiting nomads' homes and hunting
with birds of prey.

"Military
rivalry in Kyrgyzstan"
The BBC's Damian Grammaticas visits the U.S. and Russian
military bases in Kyrgyzstan, which operate within 19
miles (30 km) of one another. (BBC News, October 25, 2003)

Kyrgyzstan
Development Gateway
Kyrgyzstan Development Gateway, a private Internet portal,
features a Web page that provides a good overview of Kyrgyz
culture. A sidebar features links to information about
Kyrgyz folk music, the national art museum, luminaries
of Kyrgyz literature, and the Maria Callas of Kyrgyzstan,
operatic great Kaiyrgul Sartbaeva.

American
University-Central Asia
The American University-Central Asia, in Bishkek, was
founded in 1997, in part with grants from George Soros'
Open Institute and the U.S. State Department. Roughly
240 students enroll each year. Information about academic
programs, student life and alumni news can be found at
the site.

"Frequency
of Non-Consensual Bride Kidnapping in the Kyrgyz Republic"
This 2003 paper originally appeared in the International
Journal of Central Asian Studies and purports to be
the first study to formally quantify the incidence of
bride kidnapping in Kyrgyzstan. The author, sociologist
Russ L. Kleinbach, suggests that one in three Kyrgyz women
may be married as a result of bride kidnapping, which
is defined here as "the act of abducting a woman to marry
her and includes actions ranging from consensual marriage
to kidnapping, rape and forced marriage."

"International
Human Rights Law and Bride Kidnapping in Kyrgyzstan,"
Part
2 Lori Handrahan spent two years living in Kyrgyzstan,
working on her dissertation on ethnicity and gender relations
in the country and raising awareness of human rights issues,
including bride kidnapping. The first part of her series
provides a cultural and historical context for bride kidnapping;
the second part explores actions against the practice.

"Kyrgyz
bride theft goes awry"
In 1999, BBC correspondent Sue Lloyd-Roberts traveled
to Kyrgyzstan, where she witnessed the reaction of an
unsuspecting young woman as the women of the would-be
groom's house tried to place a headscarf on her head,
thereby sealing her fate. Through intervention by Lloyd-Roberts
and her translator, the girl's mother soon arrived and
rescued her daughter. Streaming video of the correspondent's
report can also be found here. (BBC News, "From our own
correspondent -- Kyrgyz bride theft goes awry," March
22, 1999)

"Kyrgyz
Women Tell U.N. They Lack Basic Rights"
In January 2004, seven NGOs in Kyrgyzstan presented a
report on the condition of women to the Committee on Elimination
of Discrimination Against Women at the United Nations.
According to the NGOs' representative, the Kyrgyz government
has failed to substantively meet its obligations under
the U.N.'s Convention on the Elimination of All Forms
of Discrimination Against Women, providing little more
than lip service to the promotion of gender equality in
the country. (Women's E-News, Ginger Adams Otis, January
18, 2004)

Human
Rights Watch: Kyrgyzstan
Although Kyrgyzstan has enjoyed a reputation as being
the most liberal of the five Central Asian republics,
government actions taken against NGOs and media organizations
as well as the increasing power consolidations under former
President Askar Akaev alarmed many human rights watchdogs.
Human Rights Watch's Kyrgyzstan Web page is replete with
information about the state of human rights in the country.
It includes the organization's entreaties to the government
that replaced Akaev after citizens protesting a suspect
parliamentary election forced him to resign.

Association
of Crisis Centers in Kyrgyzstan
Founded in 2001, the Association of Crisis Centers in
Kyrgyzstan (ACCK) is an NGO striving to promote a civil
society free of violence and discrimination, particularly
toward women. ACCK has eight centers in the country, provides
training workshops, and lobbies the government for the
better enforcement and expansion of legislation protecting
women's rights.

Congress
of Women of Kyrgyzstan
The Congress of Women of Kyrgyzstan (CWK) is an NGO supporting
the advancement of women through education, business and
increased political participation. It offers job and computer
skills training and seminars on foreign languages and
entrepreneurship. The organization also has partnered
with the justice and agriculture ministries, the former
assisting in the creation of a legal aid center at CWK
and the latter assisting women in the acquisition of farm
machinery.

Open
Society Institute's Central Eurasia Initiatives
Billionaire philanthropist George Soros' Open Society
Institute is a grant-making foundation whose affiliated
network of organizations promote open societies by bringing
about improvements in public health, human rights and
economic reform in more than 50 countries. The Open Society
Institute has several initiatives to advance human and
women's rights in Central Asia through the Central Eurasia
Project and grants to NGOs active in promoting human rights
in Central Asia.

Vecherny
Bishkek
Operating for more than 28 years, the privately owned
Vecherny Bishkek claims to be the largest-circulation
daily newspaper in Central Asia. The paper's Web site
is accessible in English, Russian and Kyrgyz.

Times
of Central Asia
Online since 1999, the Times of Central Asia Web
site offers regularly updated stories, published in English,
from the five Central Asian republics and Afghanistan.

Kabar
Accessible in English, Russian and Kyrgyz, Kabar is a
state-run publication of the Kyrgyz National News Agency
that presents daily news reports, official publications
of domestic relevance and story-specific information.
A sidebar feature showcases photos, mostly of a political
nature.

Radio
Free Europe/Radio Liberty
Funded by the U.S. Congress, Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty
provides radio broadcasts and online news reports to 35
million people from Central Europe to Central Asia, the
Middle East and Southwest Asia. The international news
service broadcasts in 28 languages, including Kyrgyz.